Justice should not get lost in translation

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/commentary-and-opinion/justice-should-not-get-lost-in-translation/5122801.article

27 March 2025b by Baroness Morris of Yardley

Justice should not get lost in translation

Fundamental to the justice system is the ability of any person involved in court proceedings to comprehend any allegations put to them, and to clearly understand any subsequent court hearings. In order to deliver this for those whose first language is not English, each month an average of 17,000 bookings for interpreters in over 150 languages are provided by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) through a private provider.

The House of Lords Public Services Committee inquiry into Interpreting Services in the Courts took evidence from court officials, barristers, solicitors, the MoJ and interpreters themselves. We found a real disconnect between what the government hopes is happening, what the language companies believe is happening and what front-line workers report is happening with interpreting in the courts.

Although official statistics indicate that only 1% of cases involving an interpreter are subject to complaint, the evidence gathered during our inquiry leads us to believe that there are significant problems throughout the process, and the current state of interpreting services in the courts is not working as efficiently and effectively as it should.

Current data published by the MoJ masks these problems in the service due to both data omissions, and a complaints process which causes under-reporting of issues with interpreting. The MoJ’s data seems to conflict with the reports we received from those working in the courts. Accurate information is vital, and the government must take steps to improve the quality and consistency of the data gathered and publish it in a way that is accessible and easily understood. This should include data on the number and proportion of cases which are delayed due to problems in interpreting services.

To ensure the quality of interpreting, the MoJ contract out assessments of interpreters’ ability. Interpreting is a difficult job and assessing quality has inherent challenges, but the current assessment process is inappropriate for use in too many court settings, including whispered interpreting or closed courts such as family courts. This means that assessment data may miss interpreter errors and how this may have affected judgments.

The MoJ must close these loopholes and should publish more information about the problems identified, the nature of the problems and the number of cases where judges took further actions after issues were raised.

We found low awareness as to how the complaints system operates, and a failure to make the complaints system accessible in languages other than English and Welsh means that it is inaccessible to those who may need it most. The government must increase awareness of the complaints systems, clarifying where responsibility sits for submitting complaints about interpreting services in courts and making the complaints process more accessible for non-English speakers.

Our report concludes that the current data collection, quality assurance and complaints systems lead to a significant under reporting of problems and could threaten the effectiveness of some court cases.

All that said, everyday there are many highly qualified, excellent interpreters, successfully helping to deliver justice in the courts. The interpreter workforce is fundamental in bringing about the improvements that we want to see. Interpreting is a competitive field, and demands highly-qualified, expert professionals.

However, the evidence points to a significant crisis in the recruitment and retention of these professionals. Low and opaque pay, a lack of control over earnings, poor remuneration for cancelled or delayed bookings and a lack of professional respect is leading too many interpreters to seek work elsewhere.

The committee also considered how court interpreting may be able to take advantage of current and future technology, to improve the services that users experience. We found that at a time when the country is embracing AI and the digital world, the courts find themselves hampered by an infrastructure which makes it difficult to effectively use existing technology, let alone to prepare for what might come next.

All these problems are solvable. The MoJ is currently in the process of negotiating a new contract for Interpreting Services in the Courts and it must seize the opportunity to solve the problems outlined in our report and to reform the service. Failure to do so really could mean that justice for some, is indeed lost in translation.

Read the report here

Baroness Morris of Yardley is chair of the House of Lords Public Services Committee

Lost in translation? Significant issues must be addressed for effective interpreting services in courts

https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/430/public-services-committee/news/205980/lost-in-translation-significant-issues-must-be-addressed-for-effective-interpreting-services-in-courts/

24 March 2025

Lost in translation? Significant issues must be addressed for effective interpreting services in courts

Background

The House of Lords Public Services Committee has published its report, Lost in translation? Interpreting in the courts. The report concludes that while only a small number of court cases require the need for an interpreter, the current state of interpreting services in courts is unacceptable and presents a significant risk to the administration of justice in these cases and places undue demand on an already overburdened court system.

The Committee found that there is a clear disconnect between what the Government hopes is happening, what the companies contracted to deliver the services believe is happening, and what frontline staff report is happening.

With a lack of an effective complaints system, unreliable performance data and inadequate remuneration for interpreters, the service is not delivering for all involved.

The Chair of the Committee, Baroness Morris of Yardley has said “significant problems across the end-to-end process of the provision of interpreting services in courts mean that the current system is ineffective and presents a significant risk of people suffering disadvantages during hearings because of language barriers”.

The Ministry of Justice is currently renegotiating a new contract for language services. The Committee believe the MOJ should use this opportunity to solve the problems in the service, and to reform the service.

The Government is expected to respond to this report by May 2025 and the Committee have requested progress reports on the implementation of its recommendations from September 2025 onwards.

Key recommendations

Key recommendations within the report cover:

·      Performance data - There is conflict between reports of poor-quality interpreting in courts and the data produced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). This suggests that significant issues with the quality of these services, and the impact this might have on the delivery of justice, are being missed. The Government should take steps to improve the quality and consistency of the data gathered relating to interpreting in the courts and should publish further data on its performance. This should include data on the number and proportion of cases which are delayed due to problems in interpreting services.

·      Quality assurance - The current assessment process is unsuitable for use in whispered interpreting in courts or in closed courts such as family courts. This means that assessment data may miss interpreter errors in these settings and how this may have affected judgements. The MoJ should ensure that assessments regularly take place in ‘closed’ settings and capture whispered interpreting. The MoJ should publish more information about how many problems in interpreting have been identified, how bad the problems are, and the number of cases where judges took further actions after problems were raised. 

·      Complaints - The data on complaints about interpreting services significantly underrepresents the number of problems seen in the courts. This is due to poor communication of the complaints system, low awareness of how it operates, and language barriers, which mean the people that most need to complain find the process inaccessible. Government must make improvements including taking urgent steps to improve awareness of the complaints systems, clarifying where responsibility sits for submitting complaints about interpreting services in courts, and making the complaints process more accessible for non-English speakers.

·  Interpreter Pay/Terms and Conditions - The lack of significant pay increases has led to more interpreters leaving the profession or choosing to work off-contract. This has led to greater burden on the court system, and less assurance over the quality of interpreters. To ensure sustainability of the interpreter workforce the Government should take steps to improve pay for interpreters, including the introduction of minimum pay and commensurate cancellation rates to address cases cancelled at short notice. The report also has additional recommendations on increasing travel pay and ensuring interpreters have the highest level of qualifications to provide court services. It also asks for guidance to be provided to courts to ensure interpreters are treated as professional court staff.

·  Technology and interpreting - The lack of adequate court infrastructure hampers interpreters’ ability to perform. The Government should use their court refurbishment project to ensure that the court estate infrastructure is suitable for remote interpreting, including appropriate audio-visual equipment, sound booths and portable equipment for un-refurbished courts.  In addition, court infrastructure is not equipped to embrace imminent future technological advances such as AI. The MOJ should develop and publish a funded roadmap for the introduction of AI tools for interpreting in public services, in line with the Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan. Engagement with AI companies, language companies and interpreters should also inform the roadmap.

Chair's comments

Baroness Morris of Yardley, Chair of the Public Services Committee said:

“There are many vital components to the justice system but fundamental to the entire process is the ability of a person to comprehend any allegations put to them and any subsequent court proceedings. However, we have found that significant problems across the end-to-end process of the provision of interpreting services in courts mean that the current system is ineffective and presents a significant risk of people suffering disadvantages during hearings because of language barriers, thus rendering the term lost in translation an unfortunate reality.

“Omissions in data published by the Ministry of Justice means there can be no proper assessment of how well or badly interpreting services are being delivered. The same is true of the complaints procedure which is not advertised and inaccessible to non-English speakers and has clearly resulted in under-reporting of problems. Other issues like low remuneration mean people are less willing to be interpreters and the lack of technology in the courts means more innovative and alternative methods cannot be explored.

“All these problems are solvable, and this is why we have called on the Government to address these issues by implementing our recommendations. The MoJ is currently in the process of negotiating a new contract for these services. It must use the opportunity to reform the profession so that it becomes a desirable career for highly skilled, well-respected and adequately remunerated interpreters.

“We’ve asked the Government to update us regularly on its progress with implementing our recommendations and look forward to receiving these and a comprehensive response to this report.”

Court interpreting system 'poses significant risk to justice'

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/court-interpreting-system-poses-significant-risk-to-justice/5122769.article

24 March 2025 by Monidipa Fouzder

Court interpreting system 'poses significant risk to justice'

The current state of interpreting services in the courts is inefficient, ineffective and poses a risk to the administration of justice, peers declared today following an extensive inquiry. The government was urged to use a current procurement for language services contracts to reform the sector ‘or risk reinforcing significant jeopardy to justice for the foreseeable future’.

The House of Lords public services committee held evidence sessions last year with representative bodies, interpreters, contractors and government officials. Today’s highly critical report reveals a ‘clear disconnect between what the government hopes is happening, what the companies contracted to deliver the services believe is happening, and what frontline interpreters and legal professionals report is happening with interpreting services in the courts’.

Data-gathering by the Ministry of Justice is one cause of the disconnect, the report states. ‘The conflict between the reports of poor-quality interpreting in the courts, and the data published by the MoJ, suggest that significant issues with court interpreting may be being missed in the data the MoJ gathers, making it difficult for the MoJ or parliament to assess the scale and impact of problems in this system and the impact of these problems on access to justice.’ 

Official data on complaints ‘significantly underrepresents the number of problems seen in the courts, due to low awareness, poor communication of the system, and cultural barriers among legal professionals’ and the people requiring interpreting services ‘face a language barrier submitting complaints’.

On interpreter pay, the current system ‘creates perverse incentives for court interpreters to work outside the main contracted system, due to issues with pay and terms and conditions’. Interpreters ‘lose significant amounts of money’ when cases are delayed or cancelled.

The committee says the government should publish data on the number and proportion of cases delayed to interpreting issues, make the complaints system accessible, and introduce minimum pay and commensurate cancellation rates for interpreters.

Today’s damning conclusions are unsurprising given the committee took the unusual step of urging the lord chancellor to halt the procurement process before it had published its final recommendations - a plea that was rebuffed.

Baroness Morris of Yardley, chair of the committee, said the current system for court interpreting ‘presents a significant risk of people suffering disadvantages during hearings because of language barriers, thus rendering the term “lost in translation” an unfortunate reality’.